Happiness Monday #2- The Right Path

April 13, 2015

Week two of this new tiny goal adventure is here and i’m excited about the direction it’s been heading in and i’m also excited about all the realizations i’ve made about myself already. Now this isn’t to say that one week of having a bed time or a nightly ritual has changed my life, that would be ridiculous. I’m mostly talking about all the things I had set into motion before I made this a ‘thing’ that i’m doing. For example listening to NPR and podcasts alone has become such a big and helpful part of my life because it keeps me informed, keeps me entertained, and also allows me to be more productive while i’m at home. I’m someone who requires background noise at all time unless i’m reading, then I need complete silence, but usually that means tv. I need stories being told to me and something to think about when i’m doing tasks that don’t take too much concentration. I love listening to music but it doesn’t usually work as mind food background noise for me unless it’s something that i’m really into at the moment, like my recent Brandi Carlile binge. So listening to NPR and Podcasts in my downtime/active around the house time has made me a million times more productive at home (that is the actual figure) and in a huge way has not only allowed me to have more things to bring up in conversation, but has also helped keep me accountable to all the time i’d usually be wasting at home getting distracted by the television. Keeping control of the outside has always helped me keep control of my insides and that’s what this whole thing is all about, so for now i’d call it a success!

Happy List

Getting the dog smell out of our foster’s dog bed. She is a smelly little girl and that bed was a constant battle. Finally success!

Game of Thrones is back! And it was sooooo good!

After some convincing from a friend I finally started watching The 100 and I have to say i’m glad I stuck with it. I’m only halfway through season one but the story has definitely improved from the first episode (and thankfully the acting has at least a little bit)

Successful trips to the grocery store where my list and my budget were on point!

Followed by a successful meal prep!

AND new flowers! I got some gerber daisies this week because I think my rose bush wonderland is over :/

ComedySportz was amazing this past weekend and i’m so thankful for this wonderful new family i’ve found.

Got my planner pages figured out! Now I just have to figure out how I want to design them. hmmmm

I still have girl scout cookies in my freezer but probably not for very long.

I’ve got both tomatoes and peppers coming in on my plants! I just hope they didn’t get rained out over the weekend.

I’m finally starting to map out my summer now that I know i’ll be working summer school (yay!!!) and i’m so excited for all of the fun things we’ve got coming up.

Goals

For this week i’ve got some weird smaller goals for the unconventional week ahead, and yes this is all said with lots of levity because my main goal for the week is:

Give myself space to have fun: I’m definitely trying to focus on relationships this week and I think it’s going to be easier than usual because i’ll actually be around my friends! I’m going to Austin and that in and of itself is fulfillment of this goal. Amanda Palmer is coming to Austin on tour but not to Houston and the show is on a Tuesday night so I made the decision to use one of my precious personal days (which i’m hoarding for the far-ish future because we don’t get maternity leave wooooooo) and take the day after the show off. I’ll be heading out to Austin straight from work so I can get to the show in time and i’ll get to watch the show with some of my best friends. The next day will be about treating myself with friendship and tattoos.

Reach out to others that I don’t see all the time: I’ve been meaning to send snail mail since the beginning of the year and I just straight up haven’t done it yet even though goodness knows I have all the supplies to do so. Heck I even wrote out all of the thank you notes for our housewarming gifts and didn’t send them out (I know, i’m the worst). So my goal for the next week is to send at least two letters out via snail mail and start reaching out to those that I love but maybe I let those relationships slip more than I should.

Get up early:By early I mean at least 6am every day. I can’t sleep in past 6 anymore. I get a free pass on Wednesday cause that’s my funsies vacation day, and weekends are 8:30 days. I need to even out my sleep schedule. I have to even it out. One of the biggest problems that I face when trying to regulate and stabilize my emotions is how tired I am due to how busy my schedule is and how emotionally demanding my job is. In order to give my best every day I need to take care of myself and that starts with sleeping enough and waking up early enough so I can start my days off right. I’m hoping eventually that i’ll be able to get a solid seven hours each night but that’s so hard to do!

Not feel guilty devoting my time to passion projects: It’s something that i’ve been trying to do for a while but it’s that age old cycle. I know I should be doing other ‘important’ things instead of my passion projects but I don’t wanna do more work when I get home from work so then instead of doing anything for work or for myself…I watch HGTV. Like I said earlier, i’ve gotten good at using my time in a more efficient manner and getting more daily life work done but that doesn’t mean that I still don’t feel guilty using my time to work on my planner or crafting. I haven’t crafted in a while to be honest, but a lot of that has just as much to do with fear of failure as it does with guilt.

So yeah, this week is a feelings week more so than it is a ‘do things’ week. That’s probably the biggest thing i’ve been learning along the way, as much as i’d like to just start doing things I know that i’m only setting myself up for failure if I do try to jump in with both feet. It’s one of the reasons the start of the year was rough and it took me so long to pick back up trying to improve.

What are some things you’re trying to work on? Do you find yourselves needing to get right in the little things before you attempt big changes or do you think those big changes spur those smaller actions?